The present invention relates to a process of cleaning a reagent delivery probe and an apparatus for practicing the process.
A problem in automatic delivery systems for protein-containing reagents has been that each reagent requires a separate probe to deliver the reagent to the reaction mixture. Such a system is described in co-pending and concurrently filed U.S. patent application No. 07/443,951 to Karp et al. which is commonly owned by the assignee of the present application, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. Particularly in the case of clotting proteins such as thrombin, cleaning the probe is so difficult that using a single probe to deliver thrombin and another reagent to a reaction mixture has not been commercially successful. Further, because thrombin is prone to adhere to the probe it is delivered from as it dries, even if thrombin is the only reagent delivered from a probe, there may be problems in keeping the probe clean.